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    COVID-19’s impact on Latinx students: What education leaders need to know.

    By Guadalupe Díaz Lara, Lisa M. López, R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez and Cynthia Garcia Coll
    Categories: English learners, Equity, Leadership
    December 2021
    Latinx children and their families have been hit particularly hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has brought long-standing economic, health, and educational disparities to the forefront (López, Barajas-Gonzales et al., 2020). Even before the pandemic, systemic racial and social inequities meant that Latinx students had less access to high-quality instruction and teaching than white students, were tracked into less rigorous courses, were met with lower expectations, and ultimately experienced opportunity gaps that hindered educational and economic development (U.S. Department of Education, 2021). The pandemic exacerbated these patterns (Fortuna et al., 2020). Teaching and learning don’t happen in a vacuum — school leaders must be cognizant of these needs and take steps to address them. Research suggests that school leaders should start by prioritizing professional learning

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    For a detailed review of the research described in this article, see Addressing Inequities in Education: Considerations for Latinx Children and Youth in the Era of COVID-19, written by the authors for the Society for Research in Child Development’s special Statement of the Evidence on the impact of COVD-19.
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    References

    Barajas-Gonzalez, R.G., Ayón, C., Brabeck, K., Rojas-Flores, L., & Valdez, C. (2021). An ecological expansion of the adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) framework to include threat and deprivation associated with U.S. immigration policies and enforcement practices: An examination of the Latinx immigrant experience. Social Science & Medicine. doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114126

    Chen, Y. & Thomson, D. (2021). Child poverty increased nationally during COVID, especially among Latino and Black children. Child Trends. www.childtrends.org/publications/child-poverty-increased-nationally-during-covid-especially-among-latino-and-black-children

    Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., & Viruleg, E. (2020). COVID-19 and student learning in the United States: The hurt could last a lifetime. McKinsey & Company. www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime

    Fortuna, L.R., Tolou-Shams, M., Robles-Ramamurthy, B., & Porche, M.V. (2020). Inequity and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color in the United States: The need for a trauma-informed social justice response. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy, 12(5), 443-445. dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000889

    García, E. & Weiss, E. (2017, September 27). Education inequalities at the school starting gate: Gaps, trends, and strategies to address them. Economic Policy Institute. www.epi.org/publication/education-inequalities-at-the-school-starting-gate/

    Gelatt, J., Capps. R., & Fix, M. (2021, January). Nearly 3 million U.S. citizens and legal immigrants initially excluded under the CARES Act are covered under the December 2020 COVID-19 stimulus. Migration Policy Institute. www.migrationpolicy.org/news/cares-act-excluded-citizens-immigrants-now-covered

    Kohli, R., Pizarro, M., & Nevarez, A. (2017). The “new racism” of K-12 schools: Centering critical research on racism. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 182-202. 10.3102/0091732X16686949

    López, L.M., Barajas-Gonzalez, R.G., Díaz, G., Moreno, F., & García Coll, C. (2020). Addressing inequities in education: Considerations for Latinx children and youth in the era of COVID-19 [Policy Brief]. Society for Research in Child Development. www.srcd.org/sites/default/files/resources/FINAL_AddressingInequalities-Latinx.pdf

    López, L.M., Komaroff, E., Hammer, C.S., Rodriguez, B., Scarpino, S., Bitetti, D., & Goldstein, B. (2020). Are we all speaking the same language? Exploring language interactions in the homes of young Latino DLLs living in the U.S. Early Education and Development. doi.org/10.1080/10409289.2020.1718473

    National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). (2017). Promoting the educational success of children and youth learning English: Promising futures. The National Academies Press. doi.org/10.17226/24677

    National Center of Education Statistics. (2019, February). Status and trends in the education of racial and ethnic groups: Indicator 8: English language learners in public schools. nces.ed.gov/programs/raceindicators/indicator_RBC.asp

    National Institute for Health Care Management (NIHCM). (2020). Systemic racism disparities & COVID-19: Impacts on Latino health. nihcm.org/publications/systemic-racism-disparities-covid-19-impacts-on-latino-health

    Osofsky, J.D. & Osofsky, H.J. (2018). Challenges in building child and family resilience after disasters. Journal of Family Social Work, 21(2), 115-128. doi.org/10.1080/10522158.2018.1427644

    Osofsky, J.D., Osofsky, H.J., & Harris, W.W. (2007). Katrina’s children: Social policy considerations for children in disasters. Social Policy Report, 21, 3-18.

    Padilla, C.M. & Thomson, D. (January, 2021). More than one in four Latino and Black households with children are experiencing three or more hardships during COVID-19. Child Trends. www.childtrends.org/publications/more-than-one-in-four-latino-and-black-households-with-children-are-experiencing-three-or-more-hardships-during-covid-19

    Parent Institute for Quality Education (PIQE). (2020). Community needs assessment 2020. www.piqe.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/PIQE2020_CommunityNeedsAssessment_Fall.pdf

    Romano, S.D., Blackstock, A.J., Taylor, E.V., Felix, S.E.B., Adjei, S., Singleton, C., Fuld, J., Bruce, B.B., & Boehmer, T.K. (2021). Trends in racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 hospitalizations, by region – United States, March-December 2020. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. 70(15), 560-565.

    Sanchez, G.R., Vargas, E.D., & Pedroza, A.A. (2020, July). Latino parent voices: What our families need now. Abriendo Puertas/Latino Decisions. nationalsurvey.ap-od.org

    U.S. Department of Education. (2021). Education in a pandemic: The disparate impacts of COVID-19 on America’s students. Office for Civil Rights. www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/20210608-impacts-of-covid19.pdf

    U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2021). Health disparities resource. www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/special-topics/health-disparities/resources/index.html


    Image for aesthetic effect only - Lupediaz-scaled
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    Guadalupe Díaz Lara (gdiaz-lara@fullerton.edu) is an assistant professor at California State University, Fullerton.

    Image for aesthetic effect only - Lisa-lopez
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    Lisa M. López (lmlopez@usf.edu) is a professor at the University of South Florida.

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    R. Gabriela Barajas-Gonzalez (ritagabriela.barajas-gonzalez@nyulangone.org) is an assistant professor at New York University School of Medicine.

    + posts

    Cynthia Garcia Coll (cynthia.garciacoll@upr.edu) is an adjunct professor in the Department of Pediatrics, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus, and Charles Pitts Robinson and John Palmer Barstow Professor Emerita at Brown University.


    Categories: English learners, Equity, Leadership

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